Last lap for state Senate primary

Democrats vie in close rematch

Sonia Chang-Díaz (above, left) campaigned at the Twelfth Baptist Church yesterday, and Dianne Wilkerson campaigned for reelection outside the Mission Church after services. (Globe Staff Photo / George Rizer)

State Senator Dianne Wilkerson and challenger Sonia Chang-Díaz took to the pews yesterday, greeting worshipers at Roxbury churches in a final hunt for votes.

Residents of the sprawling Senate district face a choice between sticking with Wilkerson's promise to continue delivering for the district or accepting Chang-Díaz's guarantees of clean governance in tomorrow's primary election.

"I'm not sure who I'm going to vote for," said Michelle Vaughn, a member of Roxbury's Twelfth Baptist Church, after talking to Chang-Díaz, who spoke to members after attending services. Wilkerson "is a very hard-working senator, and Chang-Díaz is very new. I need to sit down and see what their positions are."

Wilkerson spoke to members of Roxbury's Cape Verdean community at St. Patrick's Church and then greeted worshipers leaving a Spanish-language Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, also known as The Mission Church, on Tremont Street.

"I'm ready," Wilkerson said, taking advantage of a break in yesterday's rain to greet members outside the church with the help of a Spanish-speaking supporter. "I'm very confident. We are ready for Tuesday, and I'm looking forward to Tuesday night's celebration."

Chang-Díaz lingered among congregants at Twelfth Baptist after the service, answering questions from voters like Vaughn, who are accustomed to voting for Wilkerson.

"It's all systems go, as Dad would say," Chang-Díaz, the daughter of an astronaut, said of her campaign's get-out-the-vote effort for tomorrow. "You never want to get overconfident, so we're keeping the press on. We're banging away on those phones and continuing to knock on doors. I'm feeling optimistic."

The Democratic primary for the Second Suffolk Senate district is among the most hotly contested of the state legislative races. The winner of the primary is expected to determine who will represent the largely Democratic district in the Senate for the next two years. The winner will face a little-known Socialist-Workers Party candidate, William Theodore Leonard, in the Nov. 4 general election.

The race is a rematch of the 2006 primary, when Wilkerson edged Chang-Díaz in a sticker campaign.

The campaigns have just about matched each other in fund-raising. Chang-Díaz had more on hand at the end of August, according to pre-primary campaign finance reports, but Wilkerson's campaign says it has made up the difference.

The focus today and tomorrow for the candidates is turnout. The candidates have been filling Bostonians' mailboxes with fliers and letters, making sure they know, despite all the attention being paid to November's presidential election, that the state candidates have to first get through tomorrow's primary.

Chang-Díaz spent yesterday afternoon helping volunteers and staff members call voters from her Jamaica Plain campaign office and two other sites in the city. "The election is on people's minds, and that's good to see, since turnout is our greatest challenge for tomorrow," Chang-Díaz said.

Wilkerson also was working the phones yesterday, and preparing for a massive get-out-the-vote effort tomorrow.

"We have a pretty incredible transportation plan in place to make sure that we don't lose anybody," Wilkerson said. "Vans, volunteers, phones, buses, taxis. You name it, we have it."

Wilkerson has been urging voters to remember her stance on issues, including equal marriage rights, bilingual ballots, and racial profiling over the 15 years she has served the district, as reflected in her campaign slogan, "Dianne Delivers." She also has been touting the endorsements of Governor Deval Patrick and Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who recorded messages played in automated phone calls to district residents.

She would rather voters not dwell on the history of ethical lapses that have tainted her tenure in office, including her guilty pleas on misdemeanor charges related to failing to pay income taxes, a brief period in which she faced foreclosure on her home, and campaign finance violations that led to a $10,000 settlement with the state attorney general in August.

Chang-Díaz is urging voters to insist on ethical and accountable representation on Beacon Hill, saying she wants to restore trust in government. In several debates, the former public school teacher has lined up behind Wilkerson on major issues, with a few exceptions, including a biolab at Boston University and public funding for the Columbus Center real estate development, both of which she opposes.

Other competitive primary races set for tomorrow include a write-in and sticker primary to replace former state representative Rachel Kaprielian, who left the 29th Middlesex seat to head the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Two Watertown town councilors, Stephen Corbett and Jon Hecht, and a labor lawyer, Julia Fahey, are running write-in/sticker campaigns.

State Representative Pam Richardson, who won an abbreviated sticker campaign for the Sixth Middlesex seat when Representative Deborah D. Blumer died suddenly in 2006, faces challenges from two Framingham Town Meeting members. Attorney Dawn Harkness is touting the endorsement of the Blumer family, and architect Chris Walsh is running on a job-growth platform.

First-term State Representative Carl Sciortino is being forced to defend his Medford-Somerville seat in a sticker campaign, after he failed to turn in enough signatures to get on the ballot. Challenger Bob Trane's name will appear on the ballot for the 34th Middlesex seat.

John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com.